If you really want to get haunted/scared/dumbfounded/nonplussed/etc. go and check out the story of another Asian leader from a few decades ago now: i.e., Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam - a good and decent man - pilloried in the American Press for being, you guessed it, corrupt, despotic, in league with drug cartels and for having an evil drug-running brother while, simultaneously being pilloried by the Communists and the VC as a sell-out to the Americans!
If you cannot see the uncanny parallels here - well - go back to sleep and I promise not to wake you until the war is all over and the Talibs are calling the shots again (LoL).
More uncanny parallels with Karzai, when Diem realized that all American armed might was really accomplishing was the wholesale destruction of his country he opened talks with the North, quietly, through the French and his brother, the well-vilified Ngo Dinh Nhu - just as Karzai has attempted heal the rift between his government and the powers that be in Pakistan.
The Pentagon had always been annoyed with Diem's constant heel-dragging when it came to mounting military operations in South Vietnam's heavily-populated countryside - as he would plead with them that their actions were killing Vietnamese - Communist and/or otherwise. Karzai too, much to DC's chagrin, has constantly criticized US military ops that inevitably murder Afghan citizens only to earn more Washington's opprobrium.
Mark my words - if Karzai beaks-off much more - coup plans, hatched in DC, will be carried out and the murdered Karzai will be decried as being in the pocket of the ISI and/or a secret card-carrying member of the Haqqani Network and a financier of Talib Madrassahs - take your pick!
Why do you think I am so fatalistic about what will inevitably be carried out in Afghanistan? Well, the fact is I have seen it all before: i.e., the corrupting nature of official Washington/Pentagon interference in another nation's affairs never works out well. Does this make me anti-American? Far from it - as I believe the American people are as wonderful and generous a bunch as you could possibly meet but it does make me sober about the sort of messes DC has proven itself well-capable of. I should also add that I have enormous respect for professional American soldiers who told the truth and paid the price and I count McChrsytal amongst these brave men.
The latest flip-flop in State Department and Pentagon policy would have me packing my bags if I were Karzai as, one week ago they were accusing the ISI of being the devil incarnate and now, this week, they are pleading with the ISI to bring the Talibs and Mr. Haqqani to the bargaining table as Obama desperately needs a 'win' here - after all - the 2012 election season is closing-in fast (LoL).
Frankly, if I were Mullah Omar I would tell all my commanders to sit tight - talk where necessary but don't commit to anything, drag out the process, keep the heat on in Kabul or wherever it best lays bare the NATO lie about security being achieved in the country and, above all, stall and keep stalling as victory will be attained! In their tech-fueled hubris, some would say idolatry, DC/Pentagon forgot the golden rule of insurgency/COIN: i.e., the intervening power loses by not definitively winning while the insurgent force wins simply by hanging in there and, thus, not losing. The corollary of this golden rule must also be: the constant use of heavy weapons and the need for such firepower is the proof that the intervening power is losing as, inevitably, such weapons create far more recruits for the insurgents than they can possibly kill - especially in a rural, tribal society where everyone is related to everyone else and the demands for revenge (i.e., as the result of collateral damage) are sacrosanct.
BTW - the DC government is not the only NATO government that routinely lies to its people about what has really been going on in AF/PAK as ours most certainly does as do the others. To borrow from that wise old Roman general: "I have seen the face of the enemy and the enemy is us!" (I mean our governments that are chock full of professional liars).
XYZ
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61839666/Indo-Pak-Wars-A-Pictorial-History
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22457862/Military-Decision-making-and-leadership
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22455178/Letters-to-Command-and-Staff-College-Quetta-Citadel-Journal
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23150027/Pakistan-Army-through-eyes-of-Pakistani-Generals
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23701412/War-of-Independence-of-1857
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22107238/HISTORY
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